"* ) 47 t, P (J : tl . ; \ 1 Y fl fI 8d - L . ",4 ... . Y' .' / / ((1/ . ''- ; , , l i" " Ilt, . - # .. ,.. . ,. . . . .. ............. '.' . . <-:f 'x ,1 ';. C7 -- n ., .... .' 4 .' - , ,I , . / 4. ... 4rr ' , I ,""- ". /' r' " t "- \ \\ l (f <, (0 , C'- .{" I <.. , \ '" $< , " ... I ......:c. '- ... ."1. - "Good afternoon) ladies and gentlemen. The course is (l he Roots of the English ^To'uel.' !)1J1 J)rofessor Fowles) and! assume all of you can read and write.)) end of the corridor. "Vassia! \Vhat were you doing in there " But V assia appeared to be hard of hearing, and continued at his undecipherable task. " F ' . . " } } IXIng your curtaIns, t le W'1tC ler offered. I continued to stand there. "Vassia!" she shouted. I saw Vassia disappear through a door somewhere at the end of the corridor, and asked m) watcher to follow me into m, room. "Well?" I asked. " Tl ." 1 . 1 " 1 ' le armOIre, s le saH . 111 sor- ry, hut we had to take rneclsurelnent'; f 1 ." o t It clrmOire "1 don't like this," I said. "1 really don't." Still on edge about the trip in general, I felt like 111aking what the Russians call a slight skandal. \Vhat, if anything, had been searched? \Vhat was the purpose of the in vasion "N O"VV, if you would be kind enough to leave " me . . . 1 locked the door behind her and started to undress. A 1110111cnt later, I heard wild knocking at the door. I opened it. A large woman in black silk, her face joyfully made up, begeln to apologize in a loud VOIce. "You sce, we had to change the couch. \Ve held to . . put it into another 1'00111, and so we le- placed it. 1 am so sorry. You 111USt not i111agine anything We would nevel spy on a tourist. Never. You must believe " Ille. I looked at the couch It Wet'; the saIne One that had been thel e that mornIng. When she left, I started to run a bath and almost drowned a long strip of . 1 1 d " " paper WIt 1 t le wor DISINFEC rED prin ted on it in Cyrillic lette rs. It took up half the length of the tub and so delighted me that I folded it up and put it in Ill) overnight belg. 'I'here WetS a plug. There was none in the sink, however. This is the most common complaint of traveller s in the Soviet Union. Russians like to wash their hands with the water running-whIch seems sensible, unless there is c:l sc rious drought. And tourist like to do theit light laundry, for which a plug is nec- essar) . Later, as I tried to walk out of the hotel, one of the three women behind the hall desk stopped me clnd redirected me to the Intourist Bureau. "Over there. Three steps up, first door to your left. They want to see you right away." Regularly now came the 111ental juxtaposition of an Intourist W0111an and a former very strict and unfair headmistress-with the resulting un- willed drop of the heart as I asked Ill)- ,;elf, "What have I done?" This one was past forty, and full of authority. "We have an excursion all set up for you at three o'clock." She looked at her watch. "That's In twenty 111inutes. I've ordered the car and the inter- preter, as you asked not to be disturbed this morning" I kept silent, perched on the edge of a decision. Lenin, on et large poster on the wall facing me, photographed in profile, in silhouette almost, with his pointy beard sharply tilted upward, was very much with us. "I see," the Intourist woman said. " y d ' ou on t want to go on an excur- " S10n " N 11 " ot reet y, no. " D h . , "" oes t IS mean you won t go "That IS correct" 1 expected, at the very least, a repri- mand, but instead the woman sighed deeply and slowly crossed her nyloned legs high above the knee. "Which means I must cancel the